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Part of
Land and Language in Cape York Peninsula and the Gulf Country
Edited by Jean-Christophe Verstraete and Diane Hafner
[Culture and Language Use 18] 2016
► pp. 85–104

The Flinders Islands and Cape Melville people in history

| South Australian Museum

This paper uses evidence from archaeology, early ethnographic reports and primary fieldwork to reconstruct the history and the classical social organization of the Flinders Islands and Cape Melville people, in the south-eastern coastal region of Cape York Peninsula. More generally, the paper also demonstrates the interdisciplinary methods used in ethnographic description, as they are used in various aspects of anthropological work, both fundamental (e.g. in establishing an ethnographic baseline for comparative or theoretical work) and applied (e.g. in native title work or other types of reports). These methods include not just traditional anthropological methods, but also philological, linguistic, historical and archaeological work.

Published online: 18 February 2016
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/clu.18.05sut
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